The internet can be a powerful force. Just witness the righteous fury that whipped the internet community to search for and identify an teenager who stole an Xbox and Powerbook from Jesse McPherson in Philadelphia.

He blogged about it, and it was picked up on Digg and from there it gained a life of its own. People did research, called his parents (with IP Relay, no less), and helped Jesse track down the miscreant. They even made a wiki page.

Ended up that due to the furor and incessant IMs, emails, and social-media harassment, he returned the Powerbook, although the Xbox is still missing.

Thought for today: What if that poor kid had nothing to do with it like some argue, or even received the goods secondhand? What if, like the story of the soldier throwing the dog off of the cliff, there was more to it than meets the eye (he claims it was already dead…).

To bring this point home to the deaf community: What if your blog about JKF, or their blog about Julie Rems-Smario, or another blog about the latest deaf community demon did more damage than good? Mob “justice” is usually not justice at all. Innuendo, myspace pages, and rumor do not make a case; but they certainly do make nice gossip and feed righteous wrath. But remember its only gossip, for in a world where anyone can write a blog, the burden is on you, the reader, to appropriately filter and make sound judgments about what you read.

Just review DeafRead or Gallynet for your daily dose of righteous wrath, that like McDonalds, goes down delicious but gives you a case of indigestion a couple hours later.

Give me reasoned logic, orderly evidence, and solid justification any day. What’s that? You’ve heard another juicy story? Do tell!